Town of Elon examines downtown master plan

ELON — With a university that already has a strong identity, the town of Elon now wants to create one for itself.

Thus, a downtown master plan, the first in Elon’s history, is on the table.

Town officials are looking at a proposed guideline that aims to establish an eight-block area of its town center as an official “downtown,” with changes to pedestrian and vehicle traffic flows, new green spaces and parks, a downtown logo and signage and zoning ordinances.

The proposal, prepared by Kauffman Associates, will be presented during a public hearing March 3 at Elon Town Hall. The plan’s $160,000 price tag was split between the town and Elon University.

If approved and adopted by Elon’s Board of Aldermen, the downtown master plan will make some major changes to the eight blocks bordered by Williamson and Manning avenues to the east and west, and Haggard and Lebanon avenues to the north and south.

“One of the centerpieces of the proposal is the green space in the middle,” said Alderman Mark Greene, who also serves on the Elon Downtown Committee.

Referred to in the proposal’s master plan map as “town commons,” with a great lawn and interactive fountain, the open space with a park and amenities would be used for downtown events such as the existing “Alive After Five” summer music festivities, and would encourage additional regular events, Town Planner Sean Tencer said.

That could include street fairs since the vehicular traffic portion of the plan calls for one-way streets around the large park area — making them easy to shut down for a large, central event, Tencer said.

Elon Alderman Davis Montgomery, also on the Downtown Committee, said, “It kind of helps establish an anchor” for the rest of the proposed downtown area.

“The vision is: the park comes, then it’ll generate development along the borders of the park,” Tencer said.

THAT DEVELOPMENT would create a new zoning district, which is proposed as a town ordinance text amendment in the downtown master plan.

Tencer said the eight-block area is currently zoned “town center,” which allows a maximum building size of 15,000 square feet and a maximum height of three stories — with additional height allowed by special-use permit.

Under the proposed new zoning district, Town Center 1, the building size could reach 30,000 square feet and have a maximum height of four stories, with additional height allowed with special use permits.

Tencer said the Town Center 1 zoning also creates mixed-use development.

“You would have retail (and) restaurants on the first floor, office or residential above,” he said.

“Another change for downtown would be allowing multifamily with a special-use permit,” Tencer said.

The downtown master plan incorporates a multifamily section, perhaps for townhouses, he said, that also would feature a neighborhood park.

The plan also proposes specific architectural principles to which future developers would have to adhere, in order to make a cohesive downtown.

“One of the main things that the plan talks about is putting some sort of cornerpiece on each of the buildings,” said Tencer, explaining the additions would provide scale and mass to the buildings.

Currently, businesses’ and restaurants’ signs must be lit by lights shining on them, he said. A proposed ordinance change in the downtown master plan would allow slightly larger signs that could be internally illuminated — but still wouldn’t allow signs that are one long plastic box with print on it, that’s backlit from inside.

“The signs we want to see are blade … or cut-out channel letters,” Tencer said.

He said a good example are those of Bath & Body Works or Starbucks, with each individual letter cut out and individually lit. Retail establishments also would be allowed to use awnings in signage.

He believes merchants would appreciate the change.

“It’s more freedom than we currently allow.” Tencer said, “Hopefully retail establishments would take advantage of it.”

In addition to four large “Downtown Elon” signs placed at the four corners of the eight-block downtown area, a new way-finding system is proposed, using a teal green color to set the section apart from the surrounding area, which is largely Elon University.

Greene said the university has done a beautiful job of branding itself and making the campus consistent.

“We like that, but we want to have kind of a different look … to separate the two,” he said.

And if the plan is adopted by the aldermen, those new signs — as well as downtown-specific crosswalks, trash cans and curb cuts — likely would be the easiest tasks to tackle first, Montgomery said.

“Those are all visual clues that we could do immediately … to start identifying where downtown Elon is,” he said.

The larger changes, such as text ordinance amendments, rezonings, changes to streets and sidewalks, and new development, would take years and be completed in phases, Greene said.

If adopted, he said, “We’re going to be looking at capital improvement projects.” Greene said, “We’re going to be setting asisde money to go towards that.”

But the very first thing to do — pending adoption from the Board of Aldermen — is establishing an independent downtown development corporation, which would be in charge of determining cooperation among town, university and other Elon stakeholders in completing various tasks laid out in the plan, said Ken Kauffman, president of Kauffman Associates.

“Their job really is to begin working immediately,” Kauffman said.

Which shouldn’t be a problem, considering the aldermen on the Downtown Committee are behind the master plan, and several people they’ve talked to are for the redevelopment.

“Everyone this plan has been presented to has felt it’s a needed change,” Greene said.

But he acknowledged it will be a big change.

“It’s going to be a lot of cooperation,” Greene said. “This can’t be something the town does alone. It’s a huge scope.”